Coming Distractions

There's little to say about this one beyond the fact that it's a 75- minute compilation of gay XXX trailers from the '70s and early '80s. Assembled by genre stalwart Tom DeSimone under his Lancer Brooks pseudonym, it provides a decent historical survey in the time allotted and with the materials available, covering everything from theatrically exhibited gay erotica's earliest beginnings (softcore loop compilations like Bob Mizer's 1970 HOT SUMMER SPECIAL) to the porno chic era's loftiest achievements, like the one-two punch of Joe Gage's EL PASO WRECKING CORP. and L.A. TOOL & DIE. In addition, the film also touches on - most fascinating for me – many of gay porndom's lower lows (some fly-by-night one-day wonders and the spectacularly tasteless GOLDEN BOYS OF THE S.S.). Several of the trailers even constitute the only surviving footage of the films they depict (THE PLEDGEMASTERS, a fascinating though cheap-looking pseudo-doc on fraternity hazing, the lost Jaguar production MIDNIGHT GEISHA BOY, a strange-looking film called THE PHALLIC WORSHIPPERS), making this a truly valuable historical document. It's all tied together with brief sporadic narration by, one presumes, DeSimone himself, and while his voice- over does frustratingly cover some lines at the beginning and end of a few trailers, it's worth it to see DeSimone lay bare this vast trove of hardcore homo hucksterism. It only makes one wish more such comps existed, though what we have here is valuable enough - if one can find it!